7/10/2015

Photos That Make the Rude Pundit Want to Down Handfuls of Rohypnols with a Jug of Arak

Those costumed characters are performing for children just outside of Gaza City in Palestine. The stage is set up in front of a house that was destroyed during Israel's bombing campaign last year. Gaza is made of rubble, but children still try to be children, however impossible that may be.

According to a report this week by Save the Children, it's pretty damn impossible. The report says, "Up to 89 percent of parents reported that their children suffer
consistent feelings of fear, while more than 70 percent of children said
they worried about another war." Three quarters of the children of the Gaza Strip, ages 6-15, have had incidents of bedwetting and consistent nightmares. In other words, they have been bombed into a PTSD that will affect them their whole lives. Three wars in seven years will do that to the hardest of hearts, let alone the most innocent.

The kids play a game they call "Palestinians and Israelis." It's like "Cowboys and Indians," except the Indians are the good guys in this version. They play "King of the Hill" on top of the piles of broken concrete. They play as the drones and missiles buzz overhead. They play even though the blockade of their land has kept schools and health facilities and even water plants closed.

Yes, you can say there are Israeli children who have been traumatized by Palestinian actions. But 551 kids died in Gaza in the last bombardment. One Israeli child died. So a sense of proportion is necessary here.

There is no comment, no solution. Just the picture up there of kids trying hard to be kids among the ruins.